Bill Ayers, a former member of the Weather Underground and professor at the University of Chicago, was never convicted of any violence and his association with Barack Obama was tangential. But that didn’t stop Sean Hannity from promoting the Republican base meme that Barack Obama “palled around with “terrorist” Bill Ayers. Randall Terry, however, has been convicted on a number of occasions as a result of his attempts to interfere with the operation of women’s clinics and the women who access them. His tactics and rhetoric are similar to those used by white supremacist groups. He settled out of court with NOW as a result of damages that his followers inflicted on these clinics. He was recently arrested for violating a no trespassing order issued by the University of Notre Dame as part of his ongoing campaign to make abortion illegal. And during his halcyon days of anti abortion thuggery he was very close to James Kopp who was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing a doctor who performed abortions. But these unsavory facts don’t seem to be a problem for Sean Hannity who allowed Terry, during the Terri Schiavo “circus” that Terry organized, a platform from which to spout his rhetoric. Terry has promised that the Notre Dame graduation will be turned into another “circus” and Sean Hannity gave him yet another platform on Friday night’s “Hannity” show.

Update From Notre Dame - Randall Terry, in speaking by phone with Fox's Chris Wallace, said he's very disappointed at the low protest turnout. Few students have the pro-life emblem on their mortarboards. Obama received a resounding applause when he entered the hall and when he received the honorary degree. Wallace said that there has been a overwhelmingly positive response to Obama.

The show opened with a video which spliced segments of Angels and Demons together to make it look like Barack Obama was threatening the Catholic Church. Hannity said that the upcoming Notre Dame graduation is like a “blockbuster” film and the Catholic Church is protesting Obama’s upcoming speech and honorary degree. (Whoa, Stop Right There – this is not an organized protest by the Catholic Church; but a protest organized by the conservative Catholic Newman Society and Randall Terry which has been expanded to other “pro-life” groups. 70 out of about 300 Catholic bishops have spoken out as have some priests. The Vatican has NOT taken a stand.) Hannity cited the petition signed by anti-Obama protesters while not mentioning the various petitions in support of Obama’s appearance. He described his guest, Randall Terry, as being in “the forefront of the debate.” He mentioned that Terry was the first person to be arrested for protesting the speech. (And violating a no trespassing order issued from the school). Terry had to explain that the original guest (Alan Keyes) was in jail. Eluding the “no trespassing” thingie, Terry said that the arrest of Keyes, while holding a banner of Mary and praying the Rosary, was a betrayal of the Catholic Faith as Keyes was defending Mary. (Again, Randall, what part of no trespassing don’t you get?) Terry blithered that human life was being “snuffed out” because of President Obama. Hannity claimed that Obama’s position on abortion was radical and “we debated the issue of infanticide” (yeah, with anti abortion wingnut Jill Stanek whose claims have been discredited by the Illinois attorney general). Hannity played the tape of the 78 year old priest being arrested. To the question of ramification of this, Terry predicted that ND President will lose his job. He also complained that the Catholic bishops weren’t willing to be “martyrs” and asserted that the local bishop should have used his power to prevent the arrests. Hannity wanted to know why ND did this as Obama’s views are the antithesis of the Catholic faith. (Catholic Hannity obviously doesn’t know that his church’s views on social justice, treatment of immigrants and minorities are in tandem with Obama’s). Terry lapsed into a strange analogy of the situation and blithered about the “treachery” of Catholic universities who don’t take a strong stand against “child killing.” Hannity repeated the claim about antithetical views and agreed with Terry about the analogy of Pope Benedict speaking before Planned Parenthood. Terry finished off the program with an even more bizarre analogy: "Can you imagine somebody saying, 'Let's have one of the leaders of Germany come in -- we don't really like what he did with that Jewish thing, but they build great roads, and they gave people hope, and they helped rebuild the economy.' It's crazy.”

Comment: The “craziness” is coming from the Randall Terry crusaders who, with their photoshopped “fetuses” and other offensive visuals, are not exactly being welcomed into the neighborhood of Notre Dame. I’m not surprised that Terry alluded to Hitler as the anti-choice crowd equates abortion with the holocaust – a comparison that is refuted by the Jewish community as noted by Abraham Foxman of the ADL. If Hannity were “fair and balanced,” he could have “balanced” Terry with a Catholic priest or the ND validictorian who support Obama. Obviously allowing Terry a solo was more suitable for the anti-Obama propaganda. It has been argued that the Schiavo matter was where conservative Republicans started losing ground. Randall Terry and his insane clown posse at Notre Dame will just continue the erosion. Terry even stated, on today’s Fox&Friends (where he babbled the same talking points), that he was going to have people “inside” the graduation to “disrupt it.” Can you imagine the indignation of Fox News if Medea Benjamin made that claim! Can you imagine the indignation of Fox News if Code Pink were doing what Terry’s storm troopers are doing! Different strokes for different folks - even if they’re radical domestic terrorists (whoops conservative pro-life advocates!)

Additional Note - the Only Honorary Degree received by Hannity was from Liberty University.